We South Africans have much to celebrate

WE AS South Africans can be pretty tough on ourselves. Just look at how fickle we can be when it comes to supporting our beloved national sports teams. How dare the Springboks or Proteas lose a match? The same can be said for many other areas that we get rather passionate about. We are exceptionally hard on ourselves, and often without merit.

I was fortunate enough to have travelled abroad in April and again in June, to what we down this end of the continent would refer to as a First World country. Well yes, I guess that is a true definition; however, in many aspects South Africa is streets ahead!

In April, my wife and I drove about 3 500km around Germany, a First World country smaller than the Northern Cape. It is a beautiful country. However, the more we drove, the more I got to think how beautiful, yet underrated, South Africa is. We have beautiful mountains, even higher than the beloved German Zugspitze. We have beautiful rivers and amazing wildlife – possibly some of the best in the world. Our road network is far superior, even better the autobahn, in my opinion.

With this said, why are we still so negative about the amazing country we call home? Why do we slate ourselves so much?

I recall one experience when I was making a purchase and, I kid you not, the person behind the counter whipped out one of those old credit card machines in which you would lay down the card, put a piece of paper over it and then push and pull a handle over the card. I think I last saw one of those when I was 8 and my mom was doing grocery shopping.

In that moment I recall turning to my wife and saying, “Did you just see that?” It dawned on me just how far ahead we are in so many aspects than the rest of the world – something we don’t seem to celebrate or to get.

Take our banking infrastructure as an example. Look at the likes of our online, money transfer and app functionality, which in most cases are far better than anywhere else in the world. Also, the likes of DStv and programming provided is phenomenal in comparison to what I have experienced globally. Let’s also not forget how diverse we are – yet another plus.

Some exceptional entrepreneurs, inventors and businessmen were born in our beautiful country. Look at Patrice Motsepe and Elon Musk.

I want to encourage you to read the blog post that Louise Hefer wrote last month: https://www.mediashop.co.za/blog/digital/item/302-fostering-diversity-of-thought

As Louise points out, diversity is a massive strength of ours as a country, but one that we don’t always seem to take advantage of and use in our favour. Why is that? Have we become programmed to have a negative outlook? I would love our media houses to focus on the positive stories, the good that we as a country have to offer instead of focusing on the negative. After all, we have a lot to celebrate.

As we make our way into the second half of 2019, let us make the most of what lies ahead. Let’s focus on all the positive aspects in order to make a meaningful difference.

It is only in this that we as a country will realise our true potential, and move forward to greater things as a nation. Come on South Africa, let’s back one another!